Blog

By John Hitchin Following on from my earlier post on the London Policy conference, what was striking in all of the sessions that I described was the odd lack of a thread that ran through the whole conference. Each session … Continue reading →

By John Hitchin With apologies to Stewart Lee (from who I have stolen the title).  Although I will only explain the title in the second post, so you’ll have to hang on. This post has been a couple of weeks … Continue reading →

photo credit: darwinbell By John Hodson Please, please no more ‘Payment by results’ (PBR) whinging. The Welfare to Work 3rd sector is full of this kind of sentiment and of course it’s all too easy to empathise with this sort … Continue reading →

By John Hitchen The launch of Social Value Ethos at the Transition Institute was a fascinating event – the quality really coming from the insights and discussion between three individuals who had moved, or were in the process of moving, … Continue reading →

By Michael Toyer, Principal Consultant, Renaisi About six months ago I kicked off a discussion on the LinkedIn Neighbourhood Planning group (I wholeheartedly recommend this group as a range of different views are represented) to see what people thought that … Continue reading →

photo credit: suttonhoo22 As everybody knows, the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything is 42.  The problem is that nobody knows what the question is. It was hard not to think about Douglas Adams as … Continue reading →

photo credit: Bytemarks By Rob Pearce, Director Renaisi And the depressing stats keep coming. Unemployment in the UK is now at its highest level since 1994. 1 million young people are now out of work. What a waste of extraordinary … Continue reading →

By Clive Tritton, Chief Executive Renaisi A few years ago, I received three requests in a week to speak at conferences about Renaisi’s emerging employment programme, Renaisi Works. The interest emerged because the focus of our work put Registered Social … Continue reading →

photo credit: Wojtek Gurak By Kirby Swales Devolution seems to be a fact of life now for those working in the regeneration sector. Everything seems to be ‘England only’ or ‘Scotland only’ for much of the work we are involved … Continue reading →

The government’s Work Programme is now underway and we are welcoming clients through the doors of our east and west London offices. We’re proud to be delivery partners for three prime contractors: MAXIMUS and Ingeus Deloitte in West London and … Continue reading →

photo credit: aaron.bihari By Kirby Swales Whilst land use planning decisions often make local news, debates on planning policy rarely do, nor do those debates often make national headlines. This changed last weekend as the debate on the proposed presumption … Continue reading →

Oh! Mr Porter, what shall I do? There has been much talk since the election of the Coalition Government about the role of social enterprise and what a good thing social enterprise is in general. Some of this debate has … Continue reading →

photo credit: dullhunk By John Hitchin A friend of mine said to me on Wednesday night: ‘You work in regeneration, you must be so saddened by this’. My first thought was: ‘I’m a human being, I must be so saddened … Continue reading →

By Clive Tritton SHOCKED is a word I’ve seen more than any over the past few days. And whilst I agree the scenes of looting and people intent on destroying their own communities are shocking and disturbing, these actions really … Continue reading →

We’ve all been in them. They’re nice. Friendly. Warm. You can feel it when you walk in. Maybe it’s your child’s primary school, or the local library. A great community centre has it too. It probably has friendly and helpful … Continue reading →

By Kirby Swales, Director of Research, Renaisi As the Work Programme moves closer to reality, people are becoming increasingly interested in how it will work in practice. There are a growing number of research studies and commentary emerging, such as … Continue reading →

In January Rob Sugden a KTP Associate with Kingston University and Renaisi Ltd undertook a two week research trip to the USA to learn more about how regeneration is approached in the USA. As the UK regeneration sector continues to adapt … Continue reading →

By Russell Spencer  “What Next for Regeneration?” is a key question that is on the lips of all those with an interest in the sector. The approaching election, public spending cuts and general economic uncertainty have bought this question to … Continue reading →

Rod Stewart and public service reform By John Hitchin, Senior Consultant, Renaisi This is one of three short blogs that were written after sitting at the back of a recent Chatham House rule debate on the ‘Future of Regeneration’, hosted … Continue reading →

Albert Einstein and my neighbours

Philippe Starck and regeneration By John Hitchin, Senior Consultant, Renaisi This is one of three short blogs that were written after sitting at the back of a recent Chatham House rule debate on the ‘Future of Regeneration’, hosted by Renaisi. … Continue reading →

‘#regenfuture’ is the twitter tag for a new debate about what should go into a new manifesto for regeneration. Renaisi attended a first roundtable event  organized by New Start to kick it off. There were many interesting proposals. All participants … Continue reading →

The resignation of Hazel Blears from the government, and the subsequest appointment of John Denham at Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has prompted much discussion in the Renaisi offices. Read the reactions of three Renaisi consultants here: … Continue reading →